Catalan city cinema

<jats:p>This article analyses Ventura Pons’s cinematic adaptation of Sergi Belbel’s play <jats:italic>Carícies/Caresses</jats:italic> in the context of theoretical discussions of the depiction of urban space (especially David Clarke’s differentiation between ‘visuality’ and ‘hapticality’ in cinema and Michel de Certeau’s opposition of the ‘voyeur’ and the ‘walker’ in the city) and Henri Lefebvre’s thesis on ‘absolute’ and ‘abstract’ spaces developed in his <jats:italic>The Production of Space</jats:italic> (1974). In the light of these debates, the study offers a reading of Carícies as a portrait of contemporary urban malaise, but also discusses the way that a fascinating articulation of nostalgia emerges, towards the end of the film, from the principal theme of urban violence. Finally, this discussion of Pons’s city chronicle locates <jats:italic>Carícies</jats:italic> within the context of a familiar theme in Iberian culture as a whole, the portrayal of the country and the city.</jats:p>